Research Lecturer attends US Congress to learn more about biofuels from algae
Carbon Zero’s research lecturer in Energy from Waste, Dr Lorna Lawrence attended the World Congress on Industrial Biotechnology and Bioprocessing, held in Washington DC 27-30 June. Lorna’s main interest in this Congress was the ground-breaking work going on within the US on the use of algae as an alternative source of fuel.
On the opening day of the Congress new announcements came from the US Department of Energy and Elevance:
The DOE’s Assistant Secretary Cathy Zoi, head of the office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, announced funding of $24 million for three research groups addressing key hurdles in commercializaiton of algae. The money will be split among the Sustainable Algal Biofuels Consortium, the Consortium for Algal Biofuels Commercialization, and Cellana, LLC Consortium.
The DOE also released the National Algal Biofuels Technology Roadmap.
Elevance announced a joint venture with Wilmar International to build a commercial-scale manufacturing facility in Surabaya, Indonesia with an initial capacity of approximately 400 million pounds of its renewable waxes and oils. The facility will be located within Wilmar’s new integrated manufacturing complex now under construction and is expected to come online in 2011.
A session at the World Congress focused on commercialization of algae biofuels, with DOW, UOP Honeywell, Raytheon, and HR BioPetroleum presenting updates on the partnerships they’ve formed. The discussion turned to jet fuels and chemicals as way to ensure any algal process is sustainable — it can ensure economic viability and reuse of all byproducts.